Wes Copeland set a new Donkey Kong world record with a near-perfect run

The King of Kong is one of the truly great “video game movies” because it depicts a pair real-life players (Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell) battling it out for high score supremacy. But their Donkey Kong duel is over as both men have been left in the dust by a new group of wizards who’ve mastered one of Nintendo’s earliest efforts.

That group includes Wes Copeland, and the near-perfect world record he set late last week. Copeland was able to put 1,218,000 points on the scoreboard before Donkey Kong’s “kill screen” knocked him out in Level 22, better the previous record by 28,200. Writing on Facebook, Copeland said he doesn’t believe the record can be broken: “This will be my last record score… I don’t believe I can put up a game any higher than this.”

And he’s probably right. Copeland lost just a single life during in his run, which ultimately clocked in at over three hours. But congratulations are definitely in order, and Wes Copeland gets a big thumbs up from all of us here at Warp Zoned.